Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Haifa is great, but sure has a lot of stairs!

India was so exciting, but also exhausting. We are soooooo glad to be done traveling for a while, especially after our last 24 hours that included 3 flights, more than 14 hours on planes, and barely any sleep overnight.

We finally made it to Haifa last evening, where we were picked up by our wonderful host, Sara. She has been so welcoming, friendly and easy going. We are renting a room in her apartment, but she actually lives in a separate unit upstairs so we still have privacy and a huge apartment to ourselves! There might be other renters in the future, but there is plenty of space so that will be no problem. Sara seems like a great host - she is artistic, energetic and has done loads of travel herself.

We will put up pictures from Haifa soon, but just a few quick highlights for now:

The view from the apartment is UNBELIEVABLE!! Haifa is a very hilly coastal city, and we are near the top of the main hill with a patio that looks out over the whole city and the Mediterranean Sea. It is so beautiful. I can even see the view from the kitchen!

We live less than a 10 minute walk from Caroline's museum, and just a little farther to the very happening area with shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. The whole place feels much more like a small town after Santiago, just like a nice cozy welcoming feel.

The language situation seems pretty good so far. Our host Sara speaks great English, and when we stopped at a bakery, the guy spoke good English too. Also, we didn't go into Caroline's museum yet, but when we walked by we noticed that all the signs are in both Hebrew and English (and often Arabic too).

One catch - it is REALLY hilly! We walked down the hill to the grocery store this morning, and the walk back up was SO steep. We didn't count, but I think we have nearly 100 stairs from the bottom of our street to get up to the apartment. I guess that's the price you pay for a good hillside view :)

That's all for now. I need to spend some more time sitting on this balcony and enjoying the view!